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How to Measure Caloric Intake to Lose Weight?
Are you ready to lose weight? You may have decided to start a weight loss plan. But, if you want the program to work, there are a few things you should do before going on a diet. One of them is to keep a food journal and measure how many calories you eat every day.
Health, weight loss, caloric intake, lose weight, calories, weight loss plan
1. Getting started. It will take one week to keep a food journal and figure out your typical calorie intake. Make sure you choose a week when your daily food intake, your daily activity and your daily access to food are typical. Don't do it when you are starting a new exercise program, on vacation, or experiencing any other changes to your daily routine.
2. Be patient during this process. You might be anxious to begin your diet so that you can start losing weight. But without this initial step, your diet could fail. And remember that during this process you learn basic skills, like recording and measuring food. These skills will make your diet more effective in the long run.
3. How to record caloric intake? You can keep your journal online or on paper. Simply record everything you eat, and make sure that the list is saved for you to evaluate later. Use a smartphone app or an online resource to get nutritional information for each food that you list.
4. Don’t change your diet. Be honest about what you eat. There is absolutely no benefit to underestimate or overestimate your caloric intake. If you don't get an accurate recording of everything you typically eat, your weight loss road map will be wrong and you’ll never reach your final goal weight.
5. Measure portion sizes. Make sure you understand the difference between portion size and serving size. Use a digital scale to get precise measurements of each portion that you consume. It can be a tedious process in the beginning, but it gets easier as time goes on and it becomes habit.
6. Be complete. Don’t just write down the calorie count of each food. Record each macronutrient as well. That means you write down the amount of fat, carbohydrate and protein for each food. Why does this matter? Some people can reduce their total calories if they modify their nutrient intake.
7. Evaluate caloric intake. At the end of the week, figure out the total number of calories you consumed each day. Then add all seven days and divide the number by seven to get an average daily caloric intake. You can do this for each macronutrient as well to find out how many grams of fat, carbohydrate and protein you typically consume each day.
Health, weight loss, caloric intake, lose weight, calories, weight loss plan
1. Getting started. It will take one week to keep a food journal and figure out your typical calorie intake. Make sure you choose a week when your daily food intake, your daily activity and your daily access to food are typical. Don't do it when you are starting a new exercise program, on vacation, or experiencing any other changes to your daily routine.
2. Be patient during this process. You might be anxious to begin your diet so that you can start losing weight. But without this initial step, your diet could fail. And remember that during this process you learn basic skills, like recording and measuring food. These skills will make your diet more effective in the long run.
3. How to record caloric intake? You can keep your journal online or on paper. Simply record everything you eat, and make sure that the list is saved for you to evaluate later. Use a smartphone app or an online resource to get nutritional information for each food that you list.
4. Don’t change your diet. Be honest about what you eat. There is absolutely no benefit to underestimate or overestimate your caloric intake. If you don't get an accurate recording of everything you typically eat, your weight loss road map will be wrong and you’ll never reach your final goal weight.
5. Measure portion sizes. Make sure you understand the difference between portion size and serving size. Use a digital scale to get precise measurements of each portion that you consume. It can be a tedious process in the beginning, but it gets easier as time goes on and it becomes habit.
6. Be complete. Don’t just write down the calorie count of each food. Record each macronutrient as well. That means you write down the amount of fat, carbohydrate and protein for each food. Why does this matter? Some people can reduce their total calories if they modify their nutrient intake.
7. Evaluate caloric intake. At the end of the week, figure out the total number of calories you consumed each day. Then add all seven days and divide the number by seven to get an average daily caloric intake. You can do this for each macronutrient as well to find out how many grams of fat, carbohydrate and protein you typically consume each day.
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